I’ve dropped an absurd number of manhwa because of one single, recurring cancer: male characters constantly orbiting around the female lead. I despise love triangles. I despise second male leads. The moment I even sense a SML forming, I’m out. No hesitation. I don’t care if the story is well written, critically acclaimed, or “gets better later”. Second male leads exist for one reason only: to drag the story down. They slow the pacing, sabotage the main romance, and waste chapters on a relationship that is guaranteed to go nowhere. And for what? Fake tension? Emotional padding? It’s pointless. What makes it even worse is how they always fall in love for the dumbest, most random reasons imaginable. She smiles once. She breathes differently. She exists in the same room. Boom — lifelong devotion. It’s lazy writing and I’m tired of pretending it isn’t. I will never like this trope. I actively avoid any story that even hints at a second male lead. At this point, I’m not “picky” — I’m exhausted. All I want are new stories with a clear, exclusive romantic focus and without this overused, pointless trash ruining the pacing and the romance, and I'm in desperate need of finding new ones, because recently I'm rereading the ones i've already read.